In order to form a color photographic image, three color photographic couplers, that is, a yellow coupler, a magenta coupler, and a cyan coupler, are contained in photosensitive layers, and after exposure to light, they are processed with a color developer containing a color-developing agent. In this process, the couplers couple with the oxidized product of the aromatic primary amine to provide color-formed dyes.
Generally, the standard processing step of silver halide color photographic materials consists of a color-developing step of forming a color image, a desilvering step of removing developed silver and undeveloped silver, and a washing step and/or an image stabilizing step.
Although in the past it has been attempted to shorten the processing time, recently the need for shortening of the processing time has increased further because there are, for example, a demand for shortening of the delivery time of the finished product, a demand for reducing the work load in a laboratory, a demand for compactness of the processing system for a small-scale laboratory, that is, a so-called mini-lab, and a demand for simplification of the operation.
Shortening of the time of the color-developing step can be attained by using couplers whose coupling speeds are increased as much as possible, by using silver halide emulsions whose developing speeds are high, by using color developers whose developing speeds are high, by elevating the temperature of color developers, by using a suitable combination of these.
As another technique to increase the coupling speed, for example, as described in JP-A ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application) No.172349/1987, there is a method wherein the average particle diameter of lipophilic fine particles, consisting of a specific coupler solvent and a coupler, is made small.
The shortening of the desilvering step can be achieved by lowering the pH of the bleaching solution and the bleach-fixing solution. The fact that the bleach-fixing can be quickened by lowering the pH of the bleach-fixing solution is described by T.H. Jamos in The Theory of the Photographic Process, (Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.), Section 15, E, Bleach-Fix System.
However, although the bleaching speed is increased by lowering the pH of the bleach-fixing solution, the dye formed from the cyan coupler forms a colorless so-called leuco dye (leucolization) in the bleach-fixing solution, which is apt to cause the density to lower (this phenomena will be referred to as blix fading hereinafter). This leuco dye will be oxidized with oxygen in the air or the like after the processing and will gradually turn back to the original cyan dye over a few months (color restoration). This means that the color balance of a photograph that is excellent in color balance after processing will gradually become disturbed and the image quality lowers, which is a great problem.
As means of improving that, there is a method wherein after the color development, the color photographic material is washed with water, the developing agent is removed, and the photographic material is subjected to bleach-fixing processing, but this method has defects that the number of processing steps is increased and the total processing time becomes long.
As other means, a technique is suggested, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,773,510, wherein a water-soluble ionic compound containing a polyvalent element is added to a bleach-fixing solution, but this technique has the defect that the pollution load increases, and in addition the intended purpose is still not adequately attained.
Further, JP-A No. 316857/1988 describes that an improvement can be made by using a certain hydroquinone or quinone derivative. According to this technique, indeed, a certain effect can be obtained, and it is effective in the case of couplers wherein the cyan dye itself is hardly changeable to a leuco dye, but with couplers wherein the dye is readily changeable to a leuco dye or when the bleaching solution has been exhausted and the oxidizing strength has dropped, the effect is not satisfactory, and therefore a technique is still sought for further improvement. We, the inventors, studied and found that when a coupler is emulsified and dispersed by using a coupler solvent whose viscosity is relatively high and the average particle diameter of the particles of the emulsified dispersion is adjusted to be within a relatively large range, blix fading can be improved. However, in this case we encountered a problem that the color-forming properties lowered, and therefore a technique is sought wherein the color-forming properties are good and blix fading is not brought about.